


Eyes of sunset orange

by Tikki303



Category: Hiveswap, Homestuck
Genre: Casrai - Freeform, Comfort, Empath, Empathy, Fluff, Homestuck - Freeform, Lusus, Mavena - Freeform, Telekinesis, Trolls, Trollsona, hiveswap - Freeform, powers, sleepover, soft, troll powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:15:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21642778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tikki303/pseuds/Tikki303
Summary: When Casrai finds out that one of his closest friends, Mavena, is struggling through a depressive episode, he rushes over to her hive to help in any way he can. He of all people knows that even if he can't fix it, the last thing he wants Mav to think is that she's in this alone.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Eyes of sunset orange

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lucky_Guardian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky_Guardian/gifts).



> Just a note before this starts, I wrote this for my friend, Lucky_Guardian. You should really read her stuff. She's an awesome writer! Mavena's her trollsona, and Casrai is mine. I got this fic idea after she and I brainstormed for a bit, and I just had to write something about it fjghfdkdj Other important stuff to note is that Casrai's a gold blood, and his power is the ability to feel the emotions of other living beings nearby. As well, with his 3D glasses, he can physically see the emotions and auras of other living beings.
> 
> Mavena has telekinesis (as well as the ability to see ghosts, but that's a whole other story) which is also relevant to the story.
> 
> Sorry for the long foreword! Knowing all that isn't super relevant to the main events of the story, but I thought it would be helpful to know for the best reading experience. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

Casrai sat cross legged on his floor, the night air the only blanket he needed to keep him warm in his room, the only light being the gentle blue glow of his phone with its brightness all the way down.

“Are yOU Up?” Casrai texted Mavena, his fingers trembling a bit with nervousness, but his worry for her eventually urging him to press send.

Mavena wasn’t herself, and if anyone could tell, it was Casrai. He had known Mavena for years. He knew her creative bursts, her impulse, her fire, all things that let their friendship develop so quickly, and each being one of the reasons he had hung out with her in the first place. Everytime he was around her, he could feel those things as well, emotions he had never dared experience on his own. Casrai was sheltered and cowardly, and Mavena was not, simple as that. But when the two were together, whether it be freeing a ghost or hunting down a teal blood, Casrai felt those powerful emotions well up inside of him as well.

“UnfOrtUnAtElY” Mavena replied, her text bubble appearing and disappearing sporadically for a few moments before leaving it at the simple message.

Casrai’s heart sank. He didn’t need his empathy to tell that she wasn’t ok. Aside from his power, he could see through the screen like a pane of glass just how much she was hurting.

He texted back again, this time much quicker now that he had her attention, “hOW aARe yOU fEEling? DId yOU tALk tO CAppu?”

A few days before, Mav had told Cas about what she was feeling, her depression, her doubt, all of the things that had weighed her down as of late. She had already known he could feel it anyway. Casrai, unable to really help, told her to be honest with Cappu about what she was feeling, only for Mavena to give a lukewarm response.

“TOO lAtE. CAppU’s AslEEp”

“SO yOU’re alONe?”

“yEAh tEchnIcAllY”

“DO yOU WAnt tO bE LEft alONe?”

No response. The text bubble showed itself briefly before Mavena went offline.

What worries Casrai had built up inside of him burned away almost immediately. Locking his phone and throwing it into his handbag, Casrai scoured his room, grabbing anything and everything he thought he would need for his mission and shoving it inside of his bag. Stuffed animals, board games, a deck of cards, some random DVDs, and a bag of old colored pencils were all things that he thought would be helpful in cheering up his friend.

“Farsha, I’m heading to Mav’s,” Casrai called out as he left his room and crossed the living room to the front door.

The troll’s Lusus cooed from another room, the only signal he would be giving that the young troll was allowed to go. To Cas, who had gotten quite good at reading his Lusus’ emotions, the feelings he got were those of approval, giving him the go-ahead to leave for the night.

The wind, though warm, whistled with great volume through the trees above, now thick with lime colored leaves that signalled the start of summer. As he walked, Casrai held his glasses tight to his face, his eyes scanning the distance ahead to keep an eye out for any auras. After their recent run-in with a teal blood serial killer, he couldn’t be too careful.

Other than him noticing how hard it was to look at anything through multi-colored glasses, nothing interesting or worth noting happened on his walk to Mavena’s hive, aside from the occasional snap of a twig causing him to jump and speed up his pace. Within a few minutes, he had made the trek and stood at Mavena and Cappu’s front door.

Taking in a deep breath, Casrai gently tapped the front door with his knuckles, trying his best to be loud enough for his friend to hear, but quiet enough for her Lusus to sleep through.

Nothing but silence came from inside. Casrai’s heart began to sink as seeds of doubt started to sow themselves in his heart. Was he too late? Maybe Mavena had went to bed, and he was really just overreacting. He could sense her inside, the same deep blue feeling he had come to know seeping its way through the door. Whether or not she was awake or not, he knew she was there.

A buzz broke the silence. Casrai looked down to his pocket with surprise before hastily pulling it out of his pocket and unlocking the screen.

“DId yOU cOmE tO mY hOUsE?” Though it was hard to tell through her writing quirk, Casrai could tell that Mavena’s text wasn’t meant to be angry.

“I’m sORry. I jUst wANt tO MAke sURe-”

“YOU shOUld rEAllY jUst gO”

Mavena sent the text quickly before Cas could hit send on his own. As quickly as she had come online, she went offline again, leaving her friend standing alone on her porch.

He could feel her getting worse from inside, the feeling growing like a stomach ache in his own gut.

“I’m sorry that I came unannounced, but I just- I need to know that you’re ok. You’re my friend, Mav, and I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this alone.” Casrai sent the message immediately, staring at the screen while he kept his power sharp to see her reaction.

Read. No text bubble, but from inside, Cas could feel something else stirring, almost like the spark he had known Mavena for, but weaker. Before he could send another text, the sound of soft footsteps approached the door before it opened to reveal Mavena, standing with a blanket wrapped over her shoulders like a cape and a face that was a mixture between a scowl and a sob.

“Hi. . .” Was all that Casrai could muster, pulling his bag higher up on his shoulder.

“Hey.” Mavena’s voice was raspy, but Casrai could feel a bit of relief in it as well, which he hoped he had brought.

Casrai shifted his weight to his other foot. “Can I come in? I brought some stuff we can do, like cards. . . and I got a few movies.”

Mavena only nodded, stepping aside from the doorway and gesturing widely for him to come inside, her blanket hanging off of her arms like droopy wings.

Stepping inside of the familiar hive, Casrai set his bag gently down on the couch before turning to walk into the kitchen. Not waiting for Mavena’s objections, Casrai opened up the cupboards one by one before finally pulling out a box of instant hot chocolate packets. He set it down on the table before beginning to search the cupboards under the counter for two mugs and a kettle.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m making hot chocolate.”

Mavena took up a seat at the counter, her face resigned rather than confused. She knew that Casrai was doing his whole “mom-friend” thing. It wasn’t like this was the first time. Whenever Mav was in trouble, no matter how serious, Casrai did his whole schtick. When he was like this, he would do anything to cheer up his friends, stay up late on the phone with them, bake them an entire cake, or even walk over to their hive in the middle of the night to comfort them. Yeah, it got annoying, but tonight, Mav wasn’t complaining.

Casrai placed a mug of steaming cocoa gently down on the counter space in front of her. She must not have been paying attention for longer than she thought, since she didn’t even catch him boiling the water. Mavena felt bad for spacing out that long, but she took a small sip of her drink, and she somehow felt better.

The chair squeaked against the ground as Casrai took a seat next to his friend. He sat there silently, holding his long hair out of his face while he blew excessively on his drink. The silence didn’t bother either of them. It was a natural occurrence when you were friends for that long. Silence was a comfortable place for both of them to be, at least right now.

“. . . I know that we buy the same brand, but I think somehow the cocoa at your place still tastes better. It might be the novelty,” Casrai chuckled, trying to illicit the same reaction out of his friend.

Mavena only hummed, her gaze never leaving the steam rising from her mug.

Casrai could feel a pang of guilt in his gut, and it didn’t feel like it was his alone. Mavena felt the same way. It felt like she felt like she should have laughed, or that she should have reacted, but nothing came.

“Sorry, just not in the mood for a laugh,” Mavena mumbled. She knew that Casrai had felt that she wasn’t feeling up for jokes, and she wasn’t one to lie about it.

“No, it’s ok. You don’t have to laugh if you don’t feel like it. I understand. . .”

The silence stayed, now a bit heavier than it had been before. Casrai tried his best not to focus on Mav’s emotions. She knew of his powers, but that didn’t mean that she wanted him partially reading her mind every time they were sitting in the same room together.

Without a word, Casrai grabbed the handle of his mug and slid off the chair, his signature pink slippers patting softly against the floor. He slumped over to the couch, quietly taking a seat next to his bag before digging out a cover-less dvd case and setting it down on the floor.

Curious as to what her friend was doing, Mav followed, carrying her mug a few inches to her side with her psychic powers as her hands squeezed the blanket tighter around her shoulders.

Locking eyes with Mavena and giving her a half-hearted smile, Casrai popped out the dvd from its case, putting it in her dvd player and sitting back on the couch as he waited for the dvd to play.

“Cas?” Mavena asked, not moving to sit.

“Yeah?”

“What does dark blue mean?”

Casrai tilted his head in confusion. “Like, in general? I don’t know, my color theory is rusty.”

“I mean with your eyes,” Mavena responded, her voice partly annoyed and amused, “what emotion are you picking up on when they’re dark blue?”

Casrai went silent, his eyes staying fixed on the tv. It had slipped his mind how easy it was to spot the colors in his eyes, especially since they glowed a bit as well.

“Uh, I think it means sadness?” He responded, trying his best to sound vague.

“Light blue is sadness. This is different.”

Another long pause.

“Depression, really bad sadness,” Casrai admitted, turning to meet eyes with Mavena. He didn’t like avoiding another’s gaze.

“I kinda figured.” The other troll climbed over the arm of the chair, taking a seat on the opposite side of Cas. “Don’t lie about it though, please, I know you can feel it, so all I really want is for you to be honest about it.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok. . .”

The commercials of the dvd had started playing at this point, segments about random as-seen-on-tv products as well as trailers for other, equally as cheesy movies. Mav usually skipped them, but she knew that Casrai liked to watch them. Why he did was something she could never figure out, but that’s just how her friend was.

The movie eventually began. It was an old animated movie from the 90s, with the fuzzy, low quality look as its signature. The two trolls sat there for the first twenty minutes, both still silent, other than Casrai, who would make stupid comments every now and again to try to get a laugh out of his friend. She did, occasionally, but it felt more like she was laughing for his sake rather than her really thinking it was funny.

Casrai turned to look at his friend, her feelings still pulling down on his gut. “Hey, Mav, get up for a second.”

A bit confused, Mav stood up, her cocoa still floating beside her. Casrai hopped off of the couch, pulling off the cushions as he did. There weren’t a lot, but the troll had brought pillows and blankets to help build the fort. In a few minutes, with Mav occasionally helping out with her telekinesis, they had a crudely built pillow fort on the ground in front of the TV.

Casrai put his hands on his hips and looked at Mavena, his lips curling into a goofy smile. It had been years since he had played in a pillowfort. The last time he remembered was when he was just a kid, and seeing another finished fort filled him with nostalgia.

The actual fort itself had a tent-like build, with a large opening at the front to show the TV. While they had few cushions to work with, Cas had somehow built a rather roomy fort with enough room for both of them to sit inside of it comfortably. The floor was covered in colorful pillows and blankets, and the walls were insulated with the less comfortable throw blankets, a fort-building tip Casrai had learned in his many years of the craft.

Without another word, Casrai kicked off his shoes and crawled in through the opening, laying down inside as he did. He was too tall to really sprawl out, coming in at six feet, but it still felt immensely comfy just to experience it.

“So you came over to steal my couch cushions?” Mav joked dryly, taking a sip of her drink.

“Nah, I came here to cheer you up. The couch cushions are a nice bonus though- so, are you coming in or what? Or did I just absolutely slave away over this thing for nothing?” Casrai spoke in his signature voice that he did when he was trying to make it obvious that he was joking. Not that he needed to, but still noticeable.

Mav took a last sip of her drink before she willed it to land on a coffee table she had at the side of the couch. Without another moment’s hesitation, she followed her friend inside. She sat down cross legged in the center of the fort, taking a moment to look around. It was roomy- for a pillowfort at least- and the blankets all over the bottom made it so that every inch felt like a cloud.

“Whaddya think?” Cas sat up, feeling a bit awkward to be the only one laying down.

“It’s pretty good. The viewing window is a nice touch,” she laughed.

The two didn’t say another word, instead sitting together and watching the rest of the movie. It was a bit less magical than Cas remembered, since he last saw it when he was a little kid, but it was still nice to be able to share it with his friend.

Casrai popped out the disc right as the credits began to roll, not even waiting to listen to the cheesy pop song playing over them. With great care, he put it back in the labelless dvd case and snapped it shut.

He turned around, expecting to see Mav at least looking somewhat interested, but her head was rested on her knuckle, her gaze blank as a canvas as she stared off into another opening in the fort. Casrai’s heart sank. Of course, he knew that he wasn’t going to magically fix his friend’s sadness- he of all people knew that there’s never an easy fix to those feelings, but seeing her like this hurt, both mentally and physically, as he could feel the sadness well up in his own gut as well.

“Hey, uh, so what do you want to do now that the movie’s over? . . . I got a few others we could watch. I brought a few board games too.”

Mav snapped back to consciousness, turning to look a bit groggily at Casrai, her eyes only a bit more focused.

“Uh, take your pick. . .” Was all Mav could muster, returning to her task of staring at nothing in particular.

Casrai pursed his lips. Was that what she needed? Someone just to be there with her, even if they weren’t doing anything? Well, that’s what he would assume she needed, but he could feel it as well, her longing to do something. He knew she didn’t want to be this way- no one would- but he still felt like there was nothing he could do to help.

The avian troll’s eyes scanned the fort around him, stopping at his bag that he brought. He didn’t think that he would have anything in there that Mav would want to do. She probably wouldn’t mind a board or card game, but it wouldn’t really do much to cheer her up. He glanced over to the TV, with its screen blue without the input of a dvd player or game console. Eventually, his eyes landed on Mav’s game console. It was a gift she had gotten from a friend a while back- along with a copy of Mario Kart, a game that both of them loved, though for different reasons.

Casrai loved Mario Kart since it gave him an excuse to play something with his friend. He never really expected to be good at it- to be fair, he wasn’t good at any video game really, but when it came to Mario Kart, he was god awful.

Now, there are two things that Cas knew Mav loved. One was that she loved absolutely destroying him in that game- which she always teased him lightheartedly about- and two was that she loved trying to help Cas get better at the game he was hopeless at.

The male troll took up a controller in his hands and plugged the console into the TV. A couple of screens came on asking him about control configuration and the like until his eyes were met with the bright, saturated colors of the game’s main menu. He went to one of the hardest tracks, one of Mav’s favorites, and put the hardest AI players he possibly could. Finally, he picked one of his most loved characters, Bowser. His reasoning was always: “Bowser’s a good dad, why wouldn’t I want to play him?”

He played for a few minutes, and he stayed in eighth place the entire time. He was pummeled by the other AI, even though Mav always told him that they really aren’t that hard. Between flying off of the track, getting ganged up on with bananas, shells, and other sabotaging tactics, plus Casrai’s generally poor hand-eye coordination, watching Casrai trying to play this game with the skills of a newborn baby would be funny for pretty much anyone who knew anything about Mario Kart, which included Mav.

It didn’t take long for Mav to scoot up next to him, watching each of his movements carefully and occasionally turning to tell him that he should have done something different. Normally, Cas would get a bit peeved, as sometimes he just wanted to be allowed to suck, but he had no complaints this time. Seeing Mav passionate and focused on something that made her happy- occasionally to the point of laughing at his misfortune- was more than enough to keep him cheery.

After a grueling, yet hilarious few minutes, the race ended, with Casrai getting an impressive seventh place right at the end, just barely beating Peach with a lucky banana peel that another AI had placed.

“Ooh, nice, seventh!” Mav laughed.

“Pretty impressive, I know. Next thing you know you might have some competition. Maybe I’ll actually be able to make it to sixth!” Casrai spoke with a bit of sarcasm, but it was clear that he wasn’t actually mad. He was used to losing at video games, and at the very least- when he did lose- it was funny.

Mav walked up to the TV, grabbing the other controller off of where it had been charging and going back to sit down next to Cas.

“I’m gonna join in, okay?”

“Yeah, sure! I was waiting for you to come help me teach these bots a lesson.” The boy smiled at the TV as he picked Bowser again, going to another difficult map that he knew Mavena would like.

After a moment of dancing between Yoshi and Dry Bones, Mav eventually settled on the skeletal dino, locking in her pick just as Cas locked in Bowser once more.

The race started as usual, with Cas getting some decent distance on the straightaways, but eventually being rammed into by the others as soon as he reached any sort of turn. He actually laughed out loud when Bowser Jr. threw a shell at him, sending him off of the track and leaving him to be rescued.

“Man, I thought I raised you better,” Casrai joked, fidgeting with the controller as he waited for his character to be put back on the track.

For the first time of the night, Mavena actually laughed, a real laugh as he rushed past her friend, leaving behind a banana peel as she did. Cas could feel the joy beginning to warm his heart as he felt Mav actually start to cheer up. He couldn’t help but feel excited himself, but he didn’t say anything, out of fear that Mavena would start feeling bad again.

The race continued once more, with Casrai still riding up the back. This time though, with a few lucky item grabs of red and green shells, he had managed to leave Toad and Daisy in the dust. He took up an impressive sixth place, which Mav gave him props for.

Cas ran into a “jelly-cube”, which was what he called a power up cube. After waiting for it to randomly pick the power up, he saw the blue shell up in the corner of his side of the screen, and he smiled a smug smile as he threw it immediately, sending it careening towards Mav, who was comfortably sitting in first place.

Just as he thought that Mav would be struck with his missile of justice, his face dropped as he watched her reverse backwards, just enough to allow poor Mario to enter first place, where he was promptly obliterated by the cerulean torpedo.

“Wait, what? That was meant for you?” Cas asked, his speech starting to be overtaken with laughter, as he had his eyes on the bottom screen and saw Mario spinning in the air after being struck.

“No, it was meant for first place! And I was in second, see?”

“Oh you sneaky little-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Cas got his screen inked, and he drove willingly off of the side of the road with a glorious arc just as Mav crossed the finish line. With a few more blunders involving banana peels, Casrai slowly shambled past the finish line, finishing eighth place after Toad and Daisy had managed to steal back their spots from him.

“Aha!” Mav exclaimed, throwing her free arm up into the air.

“This is a hollow victory! I was betrayed by my own son- it was a family matter, and you took advantage of it!” Cas bellowed back, barely able to contain his wheezing laughter as he lifted a pillow and whipped it over Mav’s head.

Mav set down her controller. “Hey, it’s not my fault you can’t control your child!” She laughed, a few pillows beginning to rise up from the floor of the fort, bid to float by Mavena’s psychic power.

A glint of Mavena’s playfulness blushed Casrai’s cheeks as he raised his own pillow, ready for a fight. Confined to the tiny space of the fort, they began the pillow fight to end all pillow fights. Mavena started by throwing a few pillows Casrai’s way, but when she saw how much of an unfair advantage she had, she decided to fight in the old fashioned way- gripping a pillow by two corners and swinging like mad.

Casrai’s belly shook with laughter as he got whacked repeatedly by Mavena’s flurry of attacks. He would have struck back had he not been so out of breath, but he didn’t mind. Surprising Mav, Cas rolled out of the way of her last swing, allowing her pillow to smack against the flimsy couch cushion wall. In the matter of a few seconds, the ruins of their fort came toppling down around them, covering the two in the blanket roof that Casrai had made.

“No! And I didn’t even have insurance!” Casrai cried, shaking his fist into the air, the blanket still completely covering him.

Mavena chuckled, pulling herself out from under the blankets. “Sorry about the fort- I didn’t mean to break it.”

“Oh no problem!” The avian troll sat up quickly, pushing the blanket off of his face and onto his lap. “That was hilarious- and besides, I can always make a new one.”

A moment of comfortable silence passed as Cas and mav met eyes, which she lingered on for a longer time than socially acceptable- something that she only did to Casrai in specific, color related circumstances.

“. . . What does orange mean?”

“For my eyes?”

“No, for your shirt-- yes, I mean your eyes.” She chuckled.

Casrai looked up towards the ceiling, wracking his brain to try to remember the last time his eyes had been orange.

“Is it more yellow? Or more reddish?” Casrai placed his head on his knuckles in thought.

“Uh, I think. . . more yellow?”

A small, thoughtful smile bloomed on Casrai’s face as he looked up to his friend. “Y’know, the last time my eyes were that color, it was when Farsha was just getting better after being sick.”

Mavena sat in confused silence.

“I think it means that things got better, like healing. When it’s yellow-ish like that, it’s like your mood is improving, and you’re happy.”

“Really?”

“Mhm. That’s good though, right? I know you were kinda having a rough night earlier and-”

Before Casrai could finish his sentence, Mavena wrapped his in a big hug, squeezing his arms to his side. “Thanks, Cas.”

The other troll smiled and returned the hug as best he could. He could feel Mav’s relief as well as his own now that they both knew that she felt better- not perfect, but better, and that was enough.

“So, do you wanna fix up the fort again?” Mav asked, releasing her friend from her hug, wiping a few tears away from her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie.

“Heck yeah!” Cas pulled the blanket off of him completely, lifting it up into the air with him as he stood and walked up to the walls of the fort. “And when we’re done, I can smoke you in Mario Kart.”

Mavena could only laugh in her relief. Earlier that night she was depressed and alone, feeling as though all she wanted to do was hide in her room. But now, even if she still felt the depression, she wasn’t alone. Someone was there. Her friend was there, and whatever her mind may throw at her, she didn’t have to face it alone.

“You’re on!” Mav challenged, rising to her feet and grabbing a couch cushion.


End file.
